Dan Da Dan Is Back, And So Is My Obsession With Science Saru’s Keyframe Anime Posts

Dan Da Dan, Science Saru’s lovey-dovey madcap sci-fi-meets-yokai anime is back, and I couldn’t be happier. We’ve got new opening and ending theme songs to obsess over, a quietly released bare-bones beat ‘em up mobile game to poke at, and the return of the weekly ritual of delegating Mondays and Thursdays as DanDaDan Day, with new manga chapters and anime episodes dropping like clockwork. But what’s got me the most jazzed about the second season isn’t just watching my adopted anime children Scooby-Doo their way out of an X-Files jam; it's poring over its animator’s rough draft key animations on Twitter. 

While it isn’t rare for animators for shows like Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX to post illustrations on social media following the release of a new episode to drum up excitement (and marketing) for their anime and bid farewell to their co-workers, the folks at Science Saru have made it a tradition to have its animators post snippets of the production materials they worked on in new episodes. 

These key animation production materials—whose rough versions are called Genga and cleaned-up versions are called Nigen—are essentially a behind-the-scenes look at how the anime sausage is made. It’s similar to looking at the version history Google Doc of a stellar review with all the strikethroughs, moved graphs, and editor comments. Only with ningen do you get to see what the chiseled granite of animation looked like in its final stages before color shading and compositing come into play making the fluid animation (Sakuga) of anime episode what it looks like upon release.

What’s interesting about Science Saru animators posting various keyframes—whether they’re simple running cycles, head turns, character acting, or action scenes—is that many of them last no longer than four to eight seconds. Still, each keyframe plays a crucial role in making every part of Dan Da Dan’s animation shine—whether it's in its opening theme or within the episodes. Essentially, looking at Science Saru’s team's piecemeal work on new episodes is like watching a street artist sign their name on a giant mural. Plus, by checking out their keyframes in isolation, I get to geek out over small animation details I might not notice in the chaos of the final episodes, like when Momo (my favorite character) makes a goofy face in the middle of a fight. 

While I’ve meticulously set my Twitter algorithm to show me posts from Science Saru animators whenever a new episode drops, folks who also love behind-the-scenes animation details can visit websites like Sakugabooru. This site not only functions as a database for a wide range of anime shows, tagging various techniques and styles, but also links back to the animator’s Twitter accounts if people want to follow a creator’s work. I find this especially helpful in avoiding the trend where anime fans credit streaming platforms like Netflix and Crunchyroll for the animation quality, rather than recognizing the studios and animators who put in the effort to give those shows their shine and just desserts.